Erick Mendoza February 8 - constantly labor to do so Man...

Erick Mendoza February 8, 2010 Contemporary Civilization Professor Felix Koch Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments Several of the ideas that Adam Smith expounds upon in The Wealth of Nations can first be recognized in The Theory of Moral Sentiments . Passage One-. In one passage Smith explains that men live in constant struggling in a rude society, but this natural condition drives them “to cultivate the land, to build houses, to found cities and commonwealths, and to invent and improve all the sciences and arts, which ennoble and embellish human life” (Smith, TMS, IV.I.9). The passage explains that the transition from a rude society to a commercial society came about because men are naturally driven to better their condition and

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Unformatted text preview: constantly labor to do so. Man has an insatiable desire to acquire everything he sees, which motivates him to work the land, and gather produce form the ground, and trade them for the luxuries he seeks. In another passage, Smith demonstrates how this desire stimulates the institution of entire societies. Men are driven by self interest, not “from a fellow-feeling with carriers and waggoners that a public-spirited man encourages the mending of high roads” (Smith, TMS, IV.I.11). It seems as though men were naturally built to work and specialize in a myriad of tasks, to exchange their goods and become interdependent, and in this way conquer all of their ambitions....
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